When Joe Alfonsi broke into the voluntary benefits industry 15 years ago with Unum, he was given a seemingly impossible quota — and was strongly advised to focus his sales efforts on blue collar workers.

As the voluntary benefits market was once considered the domain of the working class, carriers often positioned them as affordable, valuable products for underinsured lower- and middle-income earners.

“Times have clearly changed,” said Alfonsi, who now runs TriBen Insurance Solutions, a Philadelphia-area agency specializing in supplemental and voluntary benefits. “The value of voluntary benefits goes way beyond a certain type of worker.”

Eric Silverman told a similar experience: When he broke into the voluntary industry more than 16 years ago, at the ripe age of 19, with Aflac, he, too, was told to channel his energies toward the labor class and other “rank and file workers.”

Silverman, who is a both millennial and a voluntary market veteran, said he quickly gravitated away from the notion that voluntary's value was limited to lower- and middle-income workers.

In his first year, Silverman, today the CEO of Baltimore-area voluntary agency Silverman Benefits Group, closed his first deal with a 500-life, multi-facility health club.

He oversaw the enrollment, which went well, he said. Soon after, however, he received a call from the CEO's personal assistant. The boss was angry, the assistant told Silverman, and demanded an immediate meeting.

The CEO wanted to know why the young broker did not take the time to enroll him and the company's other executive leaders.

“I didn't have a logical answer, except to say that I assumed the leadership didn't need any voluntary benefits,” said Silverman.

Adamant, the CEO looked Silverman in the eye and delivered a message that would help shape the broker's ultimate success.

“He told me he'd worked his tail off for two decades building his company, and he wouldn't be offering his workers voluntary benefits if he didn't want or need them for himself,” said Silverman. “He'd had a personal experience with a family member's illness, and was dead set on his need for a voluntary cancer policy.”

In the end, Silverman retained the client and the CEO's confidence — he still services the group — but that lesson from a highly compensated and highly educated executive was the most lasting benefit.

“I completely disagree with the notion that voluntary benefits only serve the needs of lower- or middle-wage earners,” Silverman said. “It's something I'd say I'm passionate about. It was clear from the earliest days of my career that the customers calling with claims questions were often well-compensated and highly educated individuals.”

Selling to the C-suite

These days, the growing awareness and popularity of the voluntary market runs counter to the notion that the benefits are best suited for lower-income earners, said Silverman.

But that doesn't mean that all products serve all employees in the same way.

For higher-compensated workers — company executives, lawyers, doctors, etc. — voluntary benefits are great for protecting assets and lifestyle, Silverman said. For the workers under these executives, benefits tend to protect more immediate health and welfare needs.

Not only are the C-suite's insurance needs essential to consider, they are fundamental to the overall success of an organization's benefits program.

“When I go in to enroll a group, the first people I address are the company leaders,” Silverman said. “I sit down and conduct the same one-to-one educational session as I would with any other member of the group. We don't even take on an enrollment unless the company's leadership are the first to be seen.”

Stop clinging to past perceptions

Data from Eastbridge Consulting Group show that voluntary benefit policy ownership is directly proportional to household incomes, according to senior consultant Nick Rockwell.

Thirty-two percent of households earning less than $25,000 per year in income own at least one voluntary product, according to a 2014 Eastbridge survey.

As household incomes rise, so, too, does ownership: Forty-six percent with income between $25,000 and $50,000 own a voluntary product, and close to half of all households with earnings of both $50,000 to $75,000 and $75,000 to $100,000 own a voluntary product. Above $100,000, ownership sharply declines to 36 percent.

Moreover, those in management and sales and marketing positions are more likely to own a voluntary policy than laborers: Forty-three percent of respondents in management own such a policy; 46 percent in sales; and 38 percent of laborers. Of all employment segments, skilled craftspeople show the highest rate of participation, at 55 percent.

“Our research suggests that, as employees earn more, they are more likely to take advantage of the protection offered by voluntary products,” Rockwell said. “It's difficult to say that voluntary programs are somehow more valued by blue collar or hourly employees. Even if 'blue collar' were defined by occupation rather than income, the [voluntary] industry simply is not just blue collar — we have a wide variety of blue- and white-collar earners buying voluntary today.”

Nonetheless, Rockwell said, it's likely that many brokers will continue to cling to an antiquated notion of the utility of voluntary benefits for workers in all earning classes.

“Even those with voluntary experience may limit their sales focus on what they feel is the only market segment likely to buy,” Rockwell said. “It becomes an ingrained view — almost like muscle memory, but more of a dated philosophy at this point.”

Instant Insights /

Beyond Blue Collar: Voluntary no longer the province of working class

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